Ashburton Bridge

The Ashburton bridge has to be 340m long to cross the Ashburton River. Not much water flows down the Ashburton River normally, but when it has rained heavily in the mountains, or during the spring thaw it can be bank to bank. (Click the picture to see why our rivers are so wide, yet empty for most of the year)

The first bridge over the Ashburton River was built of wood, but this one is built using reinforced concrete over 31 piers, each one supported by piles. It was opened in 1931. Click here to see a picture of the scissors used to cut the ribbon.
It was the first 22 feet (6.7m) wide bridge in the country which was great thinking by the designers because it is now used by a lot of big trucks, headers, buses and tractors every day. (This bus was actually built at an Ashburton business called Design Line.)
This flow diagram shows how they constructed the bridge over the Ashburton River. First they sank 7 piles into the gravel to hold each of the 31 piers. The reinforced concrete bridge was built over these.
This is our group. We are Andrea, Troy, Jared, Maddison and Aymee and are all Year 5 students in Manuka.